Sally Ride's Legacy: 1st Female Space Shuttle Commanders Speak Out

Below:

Next story in Space

The news of Sally Ride's death yesterday (July 23) has impacted
many around the globe, most especially those who traveled
directly in her footsteps.

Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she
flew on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. Since then, dozens
of U.S. females have made spaceflights. Two of them, Eileen
Collins and Pamela Melroy, achieved another historic milestone,
becoming the
only women to command a space shuttle mission.

"I knew I wanted to be an astronaut from watching the Apollo
astronauts land on the moon, but Sally cemented the belief inside
me that I could do it," Melroy wrote in an email to SPACE.com.
"She paved the way for women to work in space and made it so much
easier for other women to follow where she led."

Collins became the first female space shuttle commander when she
led the STS-93 flight of the shuttle Columbia in July 1999, just
16 years after Ride's first flight. Melroy then commanded the
space shuttle Discovery in 2007, becoming the last woman to
command a shuttle before the fleet retired in 2011. [ Sally
Ride: 1st American Woman in Space (Pictures) ]

"I am surprised and saddened by the news of
Sally Ride’s passing," Collins wrote in an email
yesterday. "She was such a wonderful role model and source
of inspiration to me. People around the world still
recognize her name as the first American woman in space, and she
took that title seriously even after departing NASA. She
mentored me several times during my astronaut career, leaving me
with many cherished memories."

Collins, who retired from NASA in 2006, said Ride inspired by
example.

"She never sought media attention for herself, but rather focused
on doing her normally outstanding job," Collins said. "Her
'Sally Ride Science' programs have reached thousands of middle
school girls, giving them the confidence to stay focused on math
and science, even when the mass media message was otherwise. She
also played a notable role in both the Challenger and Columbia
accident investigations. Sally left us too soon. God Speed
Sally, you will be greatly missed."

Collins and Melroy are not the only women to have commanded space
missions. NASA's current chief astronaut is veteran spaceflyer
Peggy Whitson, who commanded the International Space Station's
Expedition 16 mission in 2007 and 2008. The space station's
second female commander, Sunita Williams, is on the orbiting
laboratory now and will take command later this year.

"The selection of the 1978 Astronaut Class that included Sally
and several other women, had a huge impact on my dream to become
an astronaut. The success of those woman, with Sally paving the
way, made my dream seem one step closer to becoming a reality,"
Whitson said in a statement.

Ride, a physicist, took her status as role model seriously, and
harnessed it to reach out to students through Sally Ride Science,
the company she founded in 2001. The organization worked to
inspire boys and girls in the subjects of science, math and
technology through outreach in classrooms and teacher training.

"I met Sally for the first time on her speaking tour after her
first flight, shortly after I had graduated from Wellesley
College," said Melroy, who retired from NASA in 2009 and now
works at the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of
Commercial Space Transportation. "She was fascinating, smart,
humble, very nice - and completely inspirational."